Mahalohttp://www.businessinsider.com/category/mahalo
en-usFri, 09 Dec 2016 20:52:44 -0500Fri, 09 Dec 2016 20:52:44 -0500The latest news on Mahalo from Business Insiderhttp://static3.businessinsider.com/assets/images/bilogo-250x36-wide-rev.pngBusiness Insiderhttp://www.businessinsider.com
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-search-changes-also-created-some-big-winners-2011-3Who Gained Most From Google's Search Changes? (GOOG)http://www.businessinsider.com/google-search-changes-also-created-some-big-winners-2011-3
Wed, 02 Mar 2011 17:52:00 -0500Matt Rosoff
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/4d6ec9e54bd7c81817010000/popeater-home-page.jpg" border="0" alt="PopEater home page" /></p><p>Google made a major change to its search algorithm last week to try and improve the quality of results, and companies who rely on Google to guide users to a huge number of low-traffic pages -- like Associated Content, Demand Media, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mahalo-firing-google-2011-3">Mahalo</a> -- got <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mahalo-firing-google-2011-3">slammed</a>.</p>
<p>But according to analysis by search engine analysis company <a href="http://www.sistrix.com/blog/">Sistrix</a>, there were also some <a href="https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?hl=en&amp;hl=en&amp;key=0AgNsB0Eh00afdFNMT28tM2txTURma1lTaTRjSEJvbnc&amp;output=html">big winners</a> from the change as well.</p>
<p>The biggest? AOL's celebrity news site <a href="https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?hl=en&amp;hl=en&amp;key=0AgNsB0Eh00afdFNMT28tM2txTURma1lTaTRjSEJvbnc&amp;output=html">PopEater.com</a> saw its visibility rise 24% according to the Sistrix Visibility Index, which measures traffic on keywords, ranking, and clickthroughs.</p>
<p>Other categories with big winners included:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Online retailers and bargain sites</strong> like DHGate (+22%),&nbsp; Sears (+20%), Tech Bargains (+ 17%), Etsy (+17%), Bed Bath and Beyond (+14%), Radio Shack (+13%) and Ikea (+13%)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Encyclopedias </strong>like Softpedia (+20%) and Britannica (+18%)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>How-to sites</strong> like Instructable (+21%) and -- somewhat surprisingly -- Demand Media's eHow (+15%)</li>
</ul>
<p>Facebook also did well, gaining 12%.</p>
<p>Now, how long before clever SEO companies use this list to reverse-engineer the new algorithm, rendering it just as spammy as the last one?</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-search-changes-also-created-some-big-winners-2011-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/mahalo-firing-google-2011-3Mahalo Trims Staff In Wake Of Google Algorithm Change (GOOG)http://www.businessinsider.com/mahalo-firing-google-2011-3
Wed, 02 Mar 2011 05:11:00 -0500Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/4ad8b8d20000000000f4543b/mahalo-logo2jpg.jpg" border="0" alt="mahalo-logo2.jpg" /></p><p>Content-farm/how-to guide <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/mahalo">Mahalo</a> just laid off around 10% of staff.</p>
<p>Founder/CEO Jason Calacanis blamed <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/google">Google</a>'s big search algorithm change.</p>
<p>Mahalo apparently got&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-demand-media-2011-2"> hammered</a> by the Google search change.&nbsp; Jason's memo mentioned that revenue and traffic had taken a significant hit.</p>
<p>Importantly, Jason also said that Mahalo's new business, video, is continuing to do well.</p>
<p>Meanwhile <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/associated-content">Associated Content</a> founder Luke Beatty says <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/associated-content-google-2011-2">it won't be possible</a> for weeks to know exactly the impact of the Google change.</p>
<p>(Via <a href="http://www.centernetworks.com/mahalo-reduces-headcount-google-algo-change">CenterNetworks</a>, which has the memo.)</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/check-out-mahalos-hilariously-useless-guide-to-playing-the-xylophone-2011-2"></a></strong></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mahalo-firing-google-2011-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/google-demand-media-2011-2Google's Big Search Change Hammers Associated Content, Mahalo, Demand Media* (GOOG, DMD, YHOO)http://www.businessinsider.com/google-demand-media-2011-2
Sun, 27 Feb 2011 10:58:00 -0500Jay Yarow
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/4d6a6cf249e2ae3b0c3c0000-400-300/smashed-concrete-block.jpg" border="0" alt="smashed concrete block" width="400" height="300" /></p><p>When <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/google" class="hidden_link">Google</a> <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-declares-war-on-content-farms-including-demand-media-2011-2">tweaked its search algorithm</a> to limit crappy results, one of the its primary targets was so-called "content farms."</p>
<p>And fairly, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/in-defense-of-demand-media-googles-new-boogeyman-2011-2">or unfairly</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/demand-media" class="hidden_link">Demand Media</a> is one of the companies associated with that phrase. So everyone assumed Google's new tweaks would smash Demand.</p>
<p>Demand did get hit by the change, but not as bad as Demand wannabes it seems.</p>
<p>Search engine optimization company Sistrix took one million keywords and compared their results before and after Google's big search tweak. The results are in the table below.</p>
<p>Yahoo's <a href="../../blackboard/associated-content" class="hidden_link">Associated Content</a>, lost out big time. As did <a href="../../blackboard/mahalo" class="hidden_link">Mahalo</a>, which recently <a href="../../mahalo-4-2011-1">converted to "how-to" content</a>. Demand properties that were hit include Answerbags.com, and trails.com.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="../../image/4d6a707bccd1d5e946010000/sites.png" border="0" alt="sites" width="426" height="474" />However, Sistrix found Demand's eHow actually improved in Google:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">And how about Demand Media? Well, there is no sign that Google tried to downrank ehow.com. Ehow.com even gained SISTRIX value (from 270 to 310) and Keywords (from 317,320 to 324,021) during the algorithm-change. Looking at the <a href="http://www.sistrix.com/images/blog/algo-update-ehow.png">SERP-Distribution chart</a> from above for ehow.com, you&rsquo;ll notice the difference. Quite a statement from Google regarding the quality of Demand Medias&rsquo; content, isn&rsquo;t it?</p>
<p>(Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land has <a href="http://searchengineland.com/who-lost-in-googles-farmer-algorithm-change-66173">compiled other surveys of the data</a>, and they conform to what Sistrix found.)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sistrix.com/blog/985-google-farmer-update-quest-for-quality.html">Click here to read the whole Sistrix article &raquo;</a></p>
<p><strong>*Update:</strong> This article originally said Demand wasn't hammered. Obviously they were! We're updated the story, thanks to a commenter for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4d6a780bcadcbb8451010000">pointing out the mistake</a>.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-demand-media-2011-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/mahalos-calacanis-to-other-content-farms-be-less-crappy-2011-2Mahalo's Calacanis To Other Content Farms: Be Less Crappy (DMD, AOL)http://www.businessinsider.com/mahalos-calacanis-to-other-content-farms-be-less-crappy-2011-2
Wed, 09 Feb 2011 06:45:53 -0500Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/b837544b3264ef49653c6e00/jason-calacanis-tbi.jpg" border="0" alt="jason calacanis tbi" /></p><p>At an event yesterday <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/jason-calacanis">Jason Calacanis</a>, who recently pivoted his startup <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/mahalo">Mahalo</a> to the content-farm model, called on the other content farms to pump out less content and better content. (Via <a href="http://searchengineland.com/mahalo-calacanis-time-to-end-the-content-farm-arms-race-64109">Search Engine Land</a>)</p>
<p>Calacanis pointed out that Demand Media puts out 5,100 pieces of content per day, AOL 1,700, Associated Content 1,500 and Mahalo 1,100 and would like to see those figures divided by ten.</p>
<p>He poked fun at what we called his <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/check-out-mahalos-hilariously-useless-guide-to-playing-the-xylophone-2011-2#">"hilariously useless"</a> guide to playing the xylophone as an example of what not to do, and said content farms should focus on quality, not quantity of content, and that Google will eventually reward those that do with better search rankings, and therefore that it will be better for business over the long run.</p>
<p>Calacanis' argument may be right (and we're not so sure), but it's hard to see the competitors in his space follow his advice. But if he's right (and he follows his own advice), that could pay off big for Mahalo if it becomes a premium version of Demand Media.</p>
<p><strong>Don't Miss: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/check-out-mahalos-hilariously-useless-guide-to-playing-the-xylophone-2011-2">Mahalo's Hilariously Useless Guide To Playing The Xylophone &rarr;</a></strong></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mahalos-calacanis-to-other-content-farms-be-less-crappy-2011-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/check-out-mahalos-hilariously-useless-guide-to-playing-the-xylophone-2011-2Hilariously Useless: Mahalo's Guide To Playing The Xylophonehttp://www.businessinsider.com/check-out-mahalos-hilariously-useless-guide-to-playing-the-xylophone-2011-2
Tue, 01 Feb 2011 09:11:00 -0500Nicholas Carlson
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/4d4812c2ccd1d55312040000-361-270/baby-playing-the-xylophone.jpg" border="0" alt="Baby playing the xylophone" width="361" height="270" /></p><p>Our friend over at C<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/nbc" class="hidden_link">NBC</a>, John Carney, just bought his little daughter a xylophone. Hoping the Internet could help him teach her how to play, John googled, "How to play the xylophone."</p>
<p>And here's some good news for entrepreneur <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/jason-calacanis" class="hidden_link">Jason Calacanis</a>: The first search result Carney clicked on was a how-to guide from Calacanis's company, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/mahalo" class="hidden_link">Mahalo</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mahalo-4-2011-1">which recently pivoted into the how-to space.</a></p>
<p>And here's some bad news for Jason Calacanis: the instructions John found on that Mahalo page were laughable.</p>
<p>Seriously.</p>
<p>Don't be drinking Diet Coke through a straw right now.</p>
<p>Here is Mahalo's "<a href="http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-play-xylophone-for-beginners/">How to Play Xylophone for Beginners</a>":</p>
<hr />
<h2 class="title" style="padding-left: 30px;">Step 1: Be Sure You Want to Play the Xylophone</h2>
<ul style="padding-left: 30px;">
<li>Choosing the right instrument is essential to your success in learning to play. To see if the xylophone is right for you, visit a music store and try out one of their xylophones. You can also try playing a piano to see if you enjoy it. If you like playing the piano, you will more than likely enjoy playing the xylophone. </li>
</ul>
<h2 class="title" style="padding-left: 30px;">Step 2: Find a Xylophone</h2>
<div class="body" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<ul>
<li>After deciding that you want to learn to play the xylophone, you should find one to practice on. </li>
</ul>
<ol>
<li>Decide whether you want to buy a used or new xylophone. </li>
<li>Choose a wooden or metal xylophone. <ol>
<li>A wooden xylophone is better quality but more expensive. </li>
<li>Metal xylophones are less expensive and often smaller, making them more easily transportable. </li>
</ol> </li>
<li>Make sure that you also get mallets, as those are what you strike the keys with. </li>
</ol></div>
<h2 class="title" style="padding-left: 30px;">Step 3: Work on the Fundamentals</h2>
<div class="body" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<ul>
<li>Xylophones are one of the few instruments that you can learn to play, or at least learn to begin playing on your own. </li>
</ul>
<ol>
<li>You can purchase learning software online or check books out of the library that will walk you through the first steps to playing the xylophone. </li>
<li>Learn to read music. Just as in piano, you must know the different staffs, the different notes on those staffs, what the time signature of the piece is and what each musical notation means. </li>
<li>Begin to strike keys to see what sounds they produce. Longer bars play lower notes and shorter bars the higher ones. </li>
<li>Experiment with a different mallets. <ol>
<li>Harder beaters produce brighter and sharper sounds. </li>
<li>Soft beaters produce gentle tones. </li>
</ol></li>
</ol></div>
<div class="body" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<h2 class="title">Step 4: Get Professional Instruction</h2>
<div class="body">
<ul>
<li>If you do not feel like you are making enough progress via self-teaching or if you prefer to learn from a professional, you can seek out a xylophone teacher. Some ways to find a good instructor are: </li>
</ul>
<ol>
<li>Recommendations from family or friends who play </li>
<li>Local newspaper classifieds </li>
<li>Suggestions from your neighborhood music store </li>
<li>Online searches </li>
</ol>
<h2 class="title">Step 5: Practice Regularly</h2>
<div class="body">
<ul>
<li>Regular practice is a necessity for improving any instrumental talent. The xylophone is no exception. Practice every day to hone your skills. </li>
</ul>
<h2 class="title">Conclusion</h2>
<ul>
<li style="padding-left: 30px;">Playing the xylophone is fun and energizing and learning the instrument is relatively easy as long as you have the proper preparation. </li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<hr />
<p>Now, to be fair, Mahalo just pivoted into the how-to space. We're sure Calacanis will see entries like this and then launch a quality control initiative, A<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/sap" class="hidden_link">SAP</a>.</p>
<p>Or maybe he'll just note that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/demand-media" class="hidden_link">Demand Media</a> just <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/demand-media-wins-dmd-2011-1">IPO'd into a $1.5 billion market cap</a> producing <a href="http://www.ehow.com/how_2071214_play-xylophone.html">content</a> that isn't much better than what we just read here.</p>
<p>Anyway, to really get an idea of how useless the Mahalo instructions are, you need to see screenshots.</p>
<p>Why?</p>
<p>Because not only is this how to guide almost completely useless (we don't say completely because "practice regularly" is good advice) it is also nearly impossible to read because it is COVERED in ads.</p>
<p>Not counting two banner ads on the sides, we tallied 15. For some extra-fun, count how many of them are relevant to the content &ndash; at all. (Step 3: "Familiarize yourself with the music and learn to read it if you do not have a musical background.")</p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/4d48120849e2ae7d5a0e0000-400-300/.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/4d48120bcadcbbd76c100000-400-300/.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/4d48120bccd1d54b12040000-400-300/.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/check-out-mahalos-hilariously-useless-guide-to-playing-the-xylophone-2011-2#-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/mahalo-4-2011-1Mahalo 4.0 = Howcast + Quora + About.comhttp://www.businessinsider.com/mahalo-4-2011-1
Tue, 25 Jan 2011 06:00:00 -0500Dan Frommer
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/4d3e5f77cadcbba35f1c0000/mahalo-video.jpg" border="0" alt="Mahalo video" /></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/jason-calacanis" class="hidden_link">Jason Calacanis</a> started <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/mahalo" class="hidden_link">Mahalo</a> four years ago as a "human powered search engine," but the latest version of the site moves completely away from the original idea, and much deeper into web video and "how to" content.</p>
<p>At the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jason-calacanis-starts-promoting-mahalo-40-pivot-2011-1">DLD conference in Munich, Calacanis will unveil "Mahalo 4.0"</a> today. We had a chance to check out some previews and talk to Calacanis yesterday.</p>
<p>Here's the big idea:</p>
<p><strong>Mahalo is now going to focus on creating original how-to video content</strong>, plus some complementary text and user-generated Q&amp;A (with live, real-time answers).</p>
<p><strong>Think of it as Howcast (how-to video) + <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/quora" class="hidden_link">Quora</a> (Q&amp;A) + <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/aboutcom" class="hidden_link">About.com</a> (a more structured <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/wikipedia" class="hidden_link">Wikipedia</a>).</strong> Topics include things such as <a href="http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-play-hotel-california-by-the-eagles-on-guitar">"How to Play Hotel California by The Eagles on Guitar"</a> and <a href="http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-cook-roasted-garlic-mashed-potatoes">"How to Cook Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes."</a></p>
<p><strong>The goal this year is to start creating (from scratch) 2,500 original videos per week in 4 studios at Mahalo's L.A. headquarters.&nbsp;And Calacanis says the goal over the next couple of years is to reach 500,000 original videos. </strong>(Assuming "Mahalo 4.0" the concept makes it that long.) Right now, they're making about 900 videos per week, Calacanis says.</p>
<p>To do this, the company plans to double in size from its current size of about 105 employees. It's mostly hiring video editors, which also serve as producers. About half of its current staff are video editors.</p>
<p><strong>Mahalo is working closely with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/google" class="hidden_link">Google</a>'s <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/youtube" class="hidden_link">YouTube</a> in their partner program for this. (Smart, because it's going to need a lot of Google traffic to support this.)&nbsp;</strong>It's not building its own player or selling its own ads, but instead is hoping that YouTube can eventually monetize the videos enough through video ads to make them profitable.</p>
<p>Calacanis says YouTube can currently generate about $2 to $4 per 1,000 views, depending on the video. So a video that costs $500 to produce would need to be viewed about 160,000 times to break even at a $3 per 1,000 views revenue rate. Not unreasonable over a several years for highly searched terms.</p>
<p>Calacanis boasts that Mahalo is in incredible financial shape (without, of course, disclosing details) and that it has 12 million monthly unique visitors. He also notes that everyone now reports to Mahalo President&nbsp;Jason Rapp (formerly IAC's M&amp;A boss), and that Calacanis now just focuses on product.</p>
<p><strong>Will this work?</strong>&nbsp;Lots of people will trash this idea, but it's probably worth a shot. Calacanis is no dummy when it comes to getting web traffic, and that's what will matter here. The site probably won't be high-end, but the video views soar, they could eventually generate serious revenue.</p>
<p>Key questions:</p>
<p>Will Mahalo be able to create enough videos at the right cost in the right amount of time? Will it do SEO better than rivals like Howcast and eHow?</p>
<p>Will Google and other traffic sources generate enough views to make the videos profitable over several years? (If this idea lasts that long.) Will Google be able to continue to grow its revenue per 1,000 YouTube views as more ad money heads online?</p>
<p>Will Mahalo's pages (and videos) survive a crackdown on Demand Media-style content farms?</p>
<p>Will a big media or Internet company eventually find this content library useful enough to purchase it?</p>
<p><strong>Next: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/howcast-office-tour-2010-7#our-tour-begins-on-the-top-floor-of-howcasts-office-in-manhattans-soho-neighborhood-they-just-added-this-second-floor-1">Click here to take our tour of Howcast's NYC headquarters&nbsp;&rarr;</a></strong></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mahalo-4-2011-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/jason-calacanis-starts-promoting-mahalo-40-pivot-2011-1Jason Calacanis Starts Promoting Mahalo 4.0 "Pivot"http://www.businessinsider.com/jason-calacanis-starts-promoting-mahalo-40-pivot-2011-1
Sun, 23 Jan 2011 13:02:00 -0500Dan Frommer
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/4b17e02b0000000000f90239/jason-calacanis-400x300.jpg" border="0" alt="Jason Calacanis 400x300" /></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/jason-calacanis" class="hidden_link">Jason Calacanis</a> is launching "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/mahalo" class="hidden_link">Mahalo</a> 4.0" on Tuesday, he <a href="http://www.quora.com/Mahalo-website/Is-Mahalo-com-a-cashflow-positive-business/answer/Jason-McCabe-Calacanis?srid=h7z">just said on Quora</a>, "our pivot from human-powered search to....... :-)".</p>
<p>In other words, Mahalo, his startup, is shifting focus again.</p>
<p>To what? Good question.</p>
<p>He already tried "human" search, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/wikipedia" class="hidden_link">Wikipedia</a>, and Q&amp;A. A while ago, he was enamored with creating video content, thus <a href="http://calacanis.com/this-week-in/">another startup he helped start and fund</a>, a web video network called <a href="http://thisweekin.com/">"This Week In."</a></p>
<p>What's next? More video? Social gaming? Check-ins and badges?</p>
<p>We'll find out more about Mahalo 4.0 soon. But whatever it is, it's going to require hiring 100 more people in 2011 (taking Mahalo north of 200 employees) and doubling its real estate in LA, according to <a href="http://www.quora.com/Mahalo-website/Is-Mahalo-com-a-cashflow-positive-business/answer/Jason-McCabe-Calacanis?srid=h7z">Calacanis' Quora post</a>.</p>
<p>Here's that Quora post in full. The question was, "Is Mahalo.com a cashflow positive business? If it isn't profitable, when should it become profitable?"</p>
<p>Here's Calacanis' answer:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">We don't talk about our revenue, but we have 105 folks and we are hiring another 100 in 2011 and we just doubled our space in LA from 10k to almost 20k square feet. <br /><br />that should tell you something. <br /><br />on Tuesday we launch mahalo 4.0 and our pivot from human-powered search to....... :-)</p>
<p><strong>Read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-quora-could-get-huge-without-pissing-off-its-tech-geek-early-adopters-2011-1">Here's How Quora Could Get Huge Without Pissing Off Its Tech-Geek Early Adopters</a></strong></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jason-calacanis-starts-promoting-mahalo-40-pivot-2011-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/will-iac-buy-mahalo-now-that-its-ditching-search-for-qa-2010-11Will IAC Buy Mahalo Now That It's Ditching Search For Q&A? (IACI)http://www.businessinsider.com/will-iac-buy-mahalo-now-that-its-ditching-search-for-qa-2010-11
Tue, 09 Nov 2010 15:57:00 -0500Dan Frommer
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/4cd81eddcadcbb0e24050000/jason-calacanis.jpg" border="0" alt="Jason Calacanis" /></p><p>IAC is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iac-gives-up-on-search-fires-130-engineers-2010-11">ditching most of its Ask.com search engine efforts</a>, and will "focus its resources on developing its online question-and-answer service," <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-09/iac-s-diller-surrenders-to-google-juggernaut-ends-ask-com-search-effort.html">Bloomberg reports</a>.</p>
<p>Will IAC buy <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/jason-calacanis">Jason Calacanis</a>'s <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/mahalo">Mahalo</a> to speed up the development?</p>
<p>Mahalo, which started years ago as a human-powered search engine, has shifted its resources <a href="http://www.mahalo.com/mahalo-answers">toward Q&amp;A</a>, too. (And it's probably more obtainable for Barry Diller than the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-quora-2010-9">red-hot Silicon Valley Q&amp;A</a> site <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/quora">Quora</a>.)</p>
<p>Bonus: If IAC were to buy Mahalo, it could get back its former M&amp;A boss Jason Rapp -- <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mahalo-adds-former-iac-ma-guy-jason-rapp-as-president-2010-6">currently Mahalo's President</a>.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/will-iac-buy-mahalo-now-that-its-ditching-search-for-qa-2010-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/an-open-letter-to-jason-calacanis-2010-11Here's Why Jason Calacanis Should Move Back To New Yorkhttp://www.businessinsider.com/an-open-letter-to-jason-calacanis-2010-11
Mon, 08 Nov 2010 11:06:03 -0500Steve Rosenbaum
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/4cd81eddcadcbb0e24050000/jason-calacanis.jpg" border="0" alt="Jason Calacanis" /></p><p><em>An open letter to Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis.</em></p>
<p>Jason, I've been meaning to write this for a while now. And I know i'm not alone. Consider this a Digital Intervention, and one that may be coming a too late - though I hope not.<br /> <br />First of all - let's set the stage: &nbsp;We've known each other a long time. Back to the days when you were pure Brooklyn - fighting your way up to create a tech scene in New York. &nbsp;Silicon Alley was your invention - and with things like the Digital 100 list, you built a power base and gave the nascent NY tech scene something to be part of. &nbsp;<br /> <br />You had a chip on your shoulder, something to prove, and you could be a bit of a dick, but heck - New Yorkers like it that way. You were at home.<br /><br />I remember talking with you on a sunny Sunday afternoon at some outdoor watering hole in Soho and you had your bulldog by your feet. You seemed, for a moment, king of the world. Which is to say, happy.</p>
<p>From there - you've been more and more successful, and more and more pissed off. You sold to AOL and that was a great transaction that put some cash in your pocket. &nbsp;You moved west, and with Sequoia's&nbsp;cash, started Mahalo.</p>
<p>In hindsight, the name Mahalo seems more like you rebranding Jason 2.0. You wanted to be west coast, chill, Napa, tech. &nbsp;The only problem is - you're a New Yorker. <br /><br />And now it appears the transplant didn't take.</p>
<p>You've been roaming the earth looking to pick a fight. Whether it's telling the audience at Affiliate Summit &nbsp;that they suck, or the crazy mean email you sent to an exiting employee at <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/24/how-not-to-handle-a-resignation-gracefully/">Mahalo</a>, it's like you've been begging folks to see how angry you are and how much you're going to hit the wall.<br /> <br />Now, to be fair, &nbsp;not all east coast transplants fail in the techno-chill that is the valley. &nbsp;We all know people who've put their inner New Yorker under a bushel and made it big in tech. &nbsp;But, you can always out them with a casual mention of Zabars' Nova or good pastrami. &nbsp;<br /> <br />In your case, it's time to throw in the towel and move back east. <br /><br />You're a fighter in your DNA, and a builder, and an editorial person. There's plenty of opportunity for your restless, pissed off, &nbsp;driven alpha energy here on the island of Manhattan. &nbsp;Frankly, you'd fit right back in.</p>
<p>But if you don't move back east - you're heading for a pretty precipitous fall. <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/03/at-my-wits-end-jason-calacanis-threatens-to-sue-us/">Suing TechCrunch</a> isn't a strategy, it isn't smart, and frankly given the string of tweets you've posted about Arrington, it's just kinda of dumb. You sold to AOL and did fine. Now he's sold to AOL and he'll do good work there. For you, there's nothing but pain in this attack, and for the first time your friends who've looked the other way are starting to generally think you're losing it. <br /> <br />So Jason - here's what you have to do next.<br /><br />Drop the craziness with TechCrunch. &nbsp;You've never been a me-too person, and you're going to have a very tough time getting folks to come to a conference that feels like a grudge match. &nbsp;Life's too short - and you've to go much to offer. &nbsp;&nbsp;Second, I don't get Mahalo. &nbsp;If you do, it's time to pay attention to that business and really solve a problem. Otherwise, hand the keys back to Sequoia and stop trying to be four different people. &nbsp;Third, move back home. &nbsp;You're a fish out of water in the valley - you'll be welcomed back to NY and your whole angry New Yorker thing will fit right in.&nbsp; Plenty of poker and sushi in this town (as you know well).&nbsp; Finally, you'll find that back in New York you're one of the early guys who embraced tech, and there are lots of folks who would value your knowledge, experience, and frankly smart ass attitude. Join a VC firm, mentor start-ups, blog about the emerging tech scene - any or all of the above. You've learned a ton - and there's a city full of fired up tech companies that could use your help.<br /> <br />Yes, the winters suck. &nbsp;But otherwise, New York is home.&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/an-open-letter-to-jason-calacanis-2010-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/jason-calacanis-looking-to-poach-techcrunch-writer-paul-carr-2010-8Jason Calacanis Tries To Poach TechCrunch Writer Paul Carrhttp://www.businessinsider.com/jason-calacanis-looking-to-poach-techcrunch-writer-paul-carr-2010-8
Thu, 05 Aug 2010 08:15:25 -0400Dianne de Guzman
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/4b17e02b0000000000f90239/jason-calacanis-400x300.jpg" border="0" alt="Jason Calacanis 400x300" /></p><p>Last week, Jason <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jason-calacanis-wants-to-hire-one-of-the-top-25-analystswriters-in-the-techbusiness-world-to-help-write-his-newsletter-2010-7">announced</a> plans to to hire two people &ndash; one of them a "top 25 analysts/writers in the tech/business world" &ndash; to help to turn his big email list into a paid "forum" venture, where readers could have civilized discussions.</p>
<p>"The comments on TechCrunch and BusinessInsider are so anonymous, sad and pathetic that they&rsquo;re comical and depressing at once."</p>
<p>At Tuesday's Founder Showcase in Mountain View we got an idea of the kind of guy Jason is looking for when Jason spotted TechCrunch writer Paul Carr in the audience and offered him a job.<br /><br />"Are you looking for a job, Paul?" Jason asked from onstage. "I can say, more than Mike, I can give you equity. How would you like to be part of a launch?"</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Paul, to his credit, politely declined the offer. As Creative Director of TechCrunch TV, Paul has his hands full with supplying fresh content for his (current) employer's site.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jason-calacanis-looking-to-poach-techcrunch-writer-paul-carr-2010-8#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/jason-calacanis-wants-to-hire-one-of-the-top-25-analystswriters-in-the-techbusiness-world-to-help-write-his-newsletter-2010-7Jason Calacanis Wants To Hire "One Of The Top 25 Analysts/Writers In The Tech/Business World" To Help Write His Newsletterhttp://www.businessinsider.com/jason-calacanis-wants-to-hire-one-of-the-top-25-analystswriters-in-the-techbusiness-world-to-help-write-his-newsletter-2010-7
Sat, 31 Jul 2010 09:46:00 -0400Dan Frommer
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/b67a6c79370dfb494ed27800-400-300/jasoncalacanis-tbi.jpg" border="0" alt="jasoncalacanis tbi" width="400" height="300" /></p><p>Mahalo CEO (and former Silicon Alley Reporter/Weblogs Inc. founder) <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/jason-calacanis">Jason Calacanis</a> can't keep himself out of the content business.</p>
<p>"Writing is my drug and the send key is my needle--my true aspiration is to be a junkie (aka full-time writer)," Calacanis wrote in his latest email last night.</p>
<p>So he wants to hire two people, a junior and senior staffer, to help research and write his email blasts. And to try to turn his big email list into some sort of paid "forum" venture, where readers could have civilized discussions, because "The comments on TechCrunch and BusinessInsider are so anonymous, sad and pathetic that they&rsquo;re comical and depressing at once."</p>
<p>The most interesting part is where he says he wants to hire "of the top 25 analysts/writers in the tech/business world" to give his product more meat.</p>
<p>He gives himself a less-than 2% of making this happen. What do you think?</p>
<p>(The first obvious problem is that most of these people are already making significantly more than the $60-100K + stock options that Jason is offering to be his helper.)</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">I&rsquo;d love to have a partner in crime for the list. You know, a Shaq to<br />my Kobe, a Scottie Pippen to my Michael Jordan, or perhaps a LeBron to<br />my Dwayne Wade (wait, what?). This person would collaborate with me on<br />my pieces as well as writing pieces of their own (to which I could<br />contribute). The basic idea is to help me get the newsletter out every<br />two weeks (or about 20+ times a year).<br /><br />My ideal writer would be someone data-driven, hard-working,<br />old-school, with five to 20 years in the business. Someone who is<br />willing to share their opinion and--gasp!--actually have a point of<br />view.<br /><br />My dream team list would include folks who are not available, like the<br />killer Om Malik (no chance, entrepreneur), the disciplined Rafe<br />Needleman (CNET), the insightful Erick Schonfeld (TechCrunch), the<br />savvy Declan McCullagh (WIRED), Rafat Ali, who worked for me at<br />Silicon Alley Reporter (no chance, entrepreneur), the legendary John<br />Markoff (NYT), the up-and-coming MG Siegler (TechCrunch), the brutal<br />and wonderful Kara Swisher (no chance, entrepreneur), the diligent<br />Peter Kafka (AllThingsD), the promising Jessica Vascellaro (WSJ),<br />VentureBeat&rsquo;s prolific Dean Takahashi, and perhaps one of my all-time<br />favorites, Steven Levy (WIRED). I&rsquo;ve left off 20 more writers, but you<br />know who you are.<br /><br />The chances of us landing any of those folks is, on average, less than<br />2%, I know. Long odds, however, are my specialty<br />(http://jc.is/9BYgJp).<br /><br />2% would fall into these type of situations:<br /><br />a) their boss is a total a-hole who doesn&rsquo;t appreciate them (let&rsquo;s not<br />name names) and treats them like crap<br />b) they want to own a chunk of stock in something valuable<br />c) they&rsquo;re tired of filing 20 times a week and would rather file once<br />every two weeks (from home in their underwear)<br />d) they&rsquo;re tired of the very broken &ldquo;fair and balanced&rdquo; formula that<br />is eroding American journalism, and they want to speak the truth<br /><br />This gig would pay &ldquo;what it takes,&rdquo; which for the level of person I&rsquo;m<br />talking about above would be $60-100k (or more) depending on the<br />equity mix (i.e. 5% on the low end, 10% on the high-end).<br /><br />Offering up to double-digit equity is exactly what I&rsquo;ve done in the<br />past to take journalists from &ldquo;rice-pickers to samurai&rdquo; in the past.<br />For the right person, it will be life and career changing. Sadly, most<br />people are scared to leave the comforts of the paddy field.<br /><br />Question: Who do you think I should target?</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jason-calacanis-wants-to-hire-one-of-the-top-25-analystswriters-in-the-techbusiness-world-to-help-write-his-newsletter-2010-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/jason-calacanis-denies-rumors-hes-trying-sell-mahalo-for-700-million-2010-7Jason Calacanis Denies Rumors He's Trying Sell Mahalo For $700 Millionhttp://www.businessinsider.com/jason-calacanis-denies-rumors-hes-trying-sell-mahalo-for-700-million-2010-7
Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:54:00 -0400Nicholas Carlson
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/4c1fb5907f8b9afc57750000-327-245/jason-calacanis-loses-90k.jpg" border="0" alt="Jason Calacanis loses $90K" width="327" height="245" /></p><p>Here's a fun one.</p>
<p>An industry source told us last week that <a href="blackboard/mahalo">Mahalo</a> CEO <a href="blackboard/jason-calacanis">Jason Calacanis</a> is going around telling people he hired IAC M&amp;A vet <a href="blackboard/jason-rapp">Jason Rapp</a> as President in order to sell the company for a price around $700 million.</p>
<p>Reached for comment, Calacanis denied the rumor: "We brought Rapp in to help help scale the business."</p>
<p>"We are committed to building the business for the long term. No interest in selling."</p>
<p>That's the smart thing for Calacanis to say to a reporter. We don't really buy it.</p>
<p>While Rapp had a run as Gifts.com CEO, he's not really considered an operator. His main role at IAC over the years was in M&amp;A as Barry Diller's top deals man.</p>
<p>Our speculation: Jason is bored with Mahalo and does want to sell (though he'd be very lucky to get anything approaching $700 million). Building the business for the long term &ndash; we think &ndash; is Jason's plan B.</p>
<p>Prediction: Demand Media IPOs this fall, then uses some of the cash it raises to buy its SoCal neighbor Mahalo in spring 2011.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jason-calacanis-denies-rumors-hes-trying-sell-mahalo-for-700-million-2010-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/watch-jason-calacanis-lose-90000-in-210-seconds-2010-6Watch Jason Calacanis Lose $90,000 In 210 Secondshttp://www.businessinsider.com/watch-jason-calacanis-lose-90000-in-210-seconds-2010-6
Mon, 21 Jun 2010 14:56:00 -0400Nicholas Carlson
<p>Youchie. Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis went on a poker TV show called The Big Game, and, in the hand clipped out here, lost $90,000. He got pocket cowboys and didn't bet hard enough pre-flop to scare off another player with sixes. Jason puts it best: "Brutal." <strong>Update:</strong> Jason says there was a pre-flop limit and that he bet the max. Tougher beat, then. Jason also wants us to link to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3Wf7BxXzZ0">this</a>.</p>
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</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/watch-jason-calacanis-lose-90000-in-210-seconds-2010-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/mahalo-adds-former-iac-ma-guy-jason-rapp-as-president-2010-6Mahalo Adds Former IAC M&A Guy Jason Rapp As Presidenthttp://www.businessinsider.com/mahalo-adds-former-iac-ma-guy-jason-rapp-as-president-2010-6
Wed, 02 Jun 2010 14:20:00 -0400Jay Yarow
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/4c06a1d97f8b9a733e380000-318-238/jason-rapp.jpg" border="0" alt="jason rapp" width="318" height="238" /></p><p>Mahalo has hired Jason Rapp as President, and added him to the board.</p>
<p>Jason was formerly the M&amp;A boss at IAC. He'll be in charge of making Mahalo bigger, <a href="http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20100602/mahalo-taps-jason-rapp-as-president/">John Paczkowski reports</a>.</p>
<p>For those not in the know, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-mahalo-20-is-kicking-ass-2009-8">Mahalo </a>is the people powered search engine run founded by Jason Calacanis.</p>
<p><strong>See Also:</strong> <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-mahalos-unique-visitors-2009-12" target="_blank">CHART OF THE DAY: Mahalo Is Kicking Butt</a></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mahalo-adds-former-iac-ma-guy-jason-rapp-as-president-2010-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/alan-meckler-webmediabrands-acquire-social-times-blog-network-2009-12Alan Meckler Buys Another Blog Network (WEBM)http://www.businessinsider.com/alan-meckler-webmediabrands-acquire-social-times-blog-network-2009-12
Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:07:00 -0500Nicholas Carlson
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=4af0345c00000000002baecc" border="0" alt="alan-meckler-tbilive2" /></p><p>MediaBistro parent-company WebMediaBrands (WEBM) <span class="ch"></span> has acquired Social Times Inc., the parent company of All Facebook, a must-read in the Facebook apps development space.</p>
<p>Besides All Facebook, Nick O'Neil's Social Times Inc. is the company behind blog Social Times, online school New Media School, and trade show Social Ads Summit which has been held twice in New York. Readers are typically developers, investors, entreprenuers, and some social media consumers.</p>
<p>Explaining the buy, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/business-news/nov-02-meckler2-2009-11">WebMediaBrands CEO Alan Meckler</a>, said Social Times's properties are "totally lined up" with how MediaBistro makes its money. "He has a show, the blogs and has online education."</p>
<p>Terms were not disclosed.</p>
<p>Nick said he took the deal because "I can't cover everything that I'd like to through Social Times. With the help of WebMediaBrands we can start to immediately scale out our coverage and events."</p>
<p>Earlier this month, Alan <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-rumor-alan-meckler-buying-business-insider-or-mashable-2009-12">warned</a> us all he was in a shopping mood. He told us he's not done buying yet.</p>
<p>"We've got two other deals I hope to close this month," he said.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/alan-meckler-webmediabrands-acquire-social-times-blog-network-2009-12#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-mahalos-unique-visitors-2009-12CHART OF THE DAY: Mahalo Is Kicking Butthttp://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-mahalos-unique-visitors-2009-12
Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:30:00 -0500Jay Yarow and Kamelia Angelova
<p>Jason Calacanis' startup Mahalo's traffic has been chugging higher and higher since June, when the company shifted to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mahalo-2-is-wikipedia-for-profits-2009-6">a new model</a>, creating a Wikipedia-for-profits that incorporates crowd-sourced content and revenue sharing.</p>
<p>In the chart below you can see Mahalo has 12.2 million global unique visitors, as directly measured by Quantcast (meaning it's a relatively accurate measurement of traffic). That's way up from up from June, when Quantcast says Mahalo had around 4 million uniques.</p>
<p>Mahalo's actual traffic stats, measured internally, may be even higher: Calacanis <a href="http://twitter.com/Jason/status/6241160371">congratulated his team on Twitter today</a> for passing 13 million uniques in November.</p>
<p><img class="chartOfTheDay" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=4b15750d000000000007f673" border="0" alt="mahalo's unique visitors, chart of the day" /></p>
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<p>You can get this dropped in your inbox every afternoon as <strong>The Chart Of The Day</strong>. It's a simple. It's convenient. It's free. All we need is your email address (though we'd love your name and state, too, if you're willing to share it).&nbsp; Sign up below!</p>
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Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0500Henry Blodget
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<p><strong>Alan Meckler, CEO of WebMediaBrands</strong></p>
<p>Alan Meckler's Next Play</p>
<ul>
<li>Media Bistro: Small, but powerful</li>
<li>We have lots of tuck-in acquisitions to make</li>
<li>Also, the Semantic Web is going to be huge</li>
<li>The next Sergey Brin and Larry Page are in a garage somewhere</li>
<br />
</ul>
<p><em>Produced By: Kamelia Angelova &amp; William Wei</em></p>
<h3><strong>More Video:</strong> <a href="../tbi-live-calendar"><strong>TBI Calendar Click HERE &gt;</strong></a></h3><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/business-news/nov-02-meckler3-2009-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/meckler-hey-calacanis-what-you-thinking-with-this-mahalo-thing-2009-9Meckler: Hey, Calacanis, What Are You Thinking With This Mahalo Thing?http://www.businessinsider.com/meckler-hey-calacanis-what-you-thinking-with-this-mahalo-thing-2009-9
Fri, 04 Sep 2009 08:53:00 -0400Dan Frommer
<p>Alan Meckler's WebMediaBrands -- previously Jupitermedia -- <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mediabistro-now-the-heart-of-mecklers-webmediabrands-2009-8">just got $18 million in cash</a> for selling its Internet.com business. So Meckler is probably on the prowl for deals. But before he even sniffs at Jason Calacanis' Mahalo, he wants to know why the heck Sequoia Capital trusted Jason with all that money.</p>
<p>"I am wondering what my pal Jason Calacanis thinks he can achieve with Mahalo?" he <a href="http://twitter.com/alanmeckler/status/3749508791">asks</a> on Twitter. "Nice site but what gives it staying power?"</p>
<p>To try to answer Meckler's question, Jason has <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mahalo-2-is-wikipedia-for-profits-2009-6">moved past just "human search" to Q&amp;A and knowledge base services</a>, which pay money to people across the Internet to help each other on Mahalo. Like gaming companies trying to make money selling virtual goods, he's taking models that have worked in Korea and Japan and trying them here.</p>
<p>"Essentially we've put an economy over Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers and Google search -- in one product," <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-mahalo-20-is-kicking-ass-2009-8">he recently told us</a>. "It's confusing and new, and sloppy at times, but it's working and learning new stuff every day."</p>
<p>Whether Mahalo has staying power is just as unknown as any other Internet company. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/brands/inktomi">Inktomi</a> arguably had staying power at one point. But Mahalo at least is getting some real traffic, cracking 8 million unique visitors in July.</p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=4aa1098fe38b3b1566954441" border="0" alt="meckler-mahalo.jpg" /></p>
<p><strong>See Also:</strong> <a href="../henry-blodget-mahalo-20-is-kicking-ass-2009-8">Mahalo 2.0 Is Kicking Ass</a></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/meckler-hey-calacanis-what-you-thinking-with-this-mahalo-thing-2009-9#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-mahalo-20-is-kicking-ass-2009-8Mahalo 2.0 Is Kicking Asshttp://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-mahalo-20-is-kicking-ass-2009-8
Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:09:00 -0400Henry Blodget
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=b67a6c79370dfb494ed27800&amp;maxX=400&amp;maxY=300" border="0" alt="jasoncalacanis tbi" width="400" height="300" /></p><p>Jason Calacanis continues to do what he does best: Innovate.&nbsp;</p>
<p>When the original concept for Mahalo didn't work as well as he thought it would, he did what all great entrepreneurs do: Try something different.</p>
<p>The second version of Mahalo, which is based on crowd-sourcing and revenue sharing, appears to be off to a great start.</p>
<p>Jason gave us a brief update:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Mahalo broke 6m uniqes in June, 8m uniques in July and we are on track to break 9m uniques in August.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">-- We are now the 220th largest site in the US according to Quantcast<br /> *verified* (i.e. real numbers).<br /> <br /> -- We're making well over $1M a year from AdSense alone and we've just<br /> spun up our sales group with four f/t sales people.<br /> <br /> <img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=4a807dfa5e425947106e5243" border="0" alt="mahalotraffic.jpg" width="428" height="270" />-- We have hundreds of members on track to make hundreds to thousands of dollar in revenue split after just 60 days of Mahalo 2.0. You can see the leaderboard<a href="http://www.mahalo.com/leaderboard/users"> here</a>: (note: Lon, Camilia, Mike and SSMACD are our staffers--everyone else is the public).<br /> <br /> -- We will hit profitability in the next 6-12 months and still have four years of runway in the bank. We will not need to raise any more capital--two rounds of funding and we will easily make it over the finish line.<br /> <br /> -- Our new mission is to get into the top 100 sites in the next 12 months.</p>
<p>Why is it working?</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Essentially the Mahalo 2.0 model, where we give revenue splits to the audience and virtual currency in Mahalo Tasks (our Mechanical Turk) has exploded. We have people building 300-500 pages for us for $1,000 in virtual currency every 2-5 days in Mahalo Tasks. This is going to ramp up to us building 1-2,000 pages a day in Mahalo Tasks by the end of the year, and 5k pages a day by the end of 2010. That will give us the ability to have more topic pages than the Wikipedia in three years.</p>
<p>Elaborate, please:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">1. Traffic is booming because we are making 20-30x the number of how to articles and topic pages thanks to the revenue split motivating hundreds of participants.<br /> <br /> Our big learning: for two years we hired full-time staffers in our office for $40k a year, from home for $10 an hour and in Manila for $3-4 an hour and none of these solutions worked as well are revenue sharing has proven to be over the last 60 days.<br /> <br /> 2. Traffic is also booming because we added a "team tipping" feature to Mahalo Answers where multiple users can add to a tip... this is making multi-dollar tips for many questions a day. This results in more answers, which results in more people posting questions and the fly wheel spins and spins. See example attached.<br /> <br /> Big picture: We are the first people in the world to put a virtual currency on top of a Q&amp;A system and knowledge base--and its working. This all comes from my frequent trips to Korean and Japan studying and meeting with the top people from Yahoo, Naver, Daum.net, Softbank, Mixi, CyWorld, Gree, etc. These firms are making billions from virtual currency for casual games, virtual gifts and selling songs for people to put on their homepages. We took inspiration from them to layer this brand new, multi-billion dollar, revenue stream onto content.<br /> <br /> We've created a vibrant economy inside of Mahalo that builds on the power of recognition and affiliation (which are key drivers also).<br /> <br /> At Weblogs, inc. we learned that the factors the drive people are, in order:<br /> <br /> 1. Recognition<br /> 2. Affiliation<br /> 3. Compensation<br /> <br /> People loved having their byline on Engadget and Autoblog and they loved being associated with the other bloggers on those sites. Getting paid to blog was the icing on the cake (at least back in those early<br /> days).<br /> <br /> The Virtual currency makes compensation into a game, like Skeeball, where people get two rushes: the fun of seeing their score increase AND the ability to get a $100 to $2,000 in real money each month.<br /> <br /> We will have 100 people making over $10,000 a year within four months thanks to revenue sharing and answering questions. We will have a couple of dozen people making over $20,000 a year if things continue<br /> on this path. For every $1 they make we make ~$1.25, so we are more than happy to pay people a large sum of money for participating.<br /> <br /> Essentially we've put an economy over Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers and Google search--in one product. It's confusing and new, and sloppy at times, but it's working and learning new stuff every day.<br /> <br /> Key lesson for me: 1. travel and see what other people are doing for inspiration. 2. Innovate, innovate and innovate some more.</p>
<p><strong>See Also:<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-case-against-apple-2009-8"> </a></strong><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-case-against-apple-2009-8">Jason Calacanis Makes The Case Against Apple</a></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-mahalo-20-is-kicking-ass-2009-8#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/jason-calacanis-jimmy-wales-is-a-poser-2009-6Jason Calacanis: Jimmy Wales Is A Poserhttp://www.businessinsider.com/jason-calacanis-jimmy-wales-is-a-poser-2009-6
Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:02:00 -0400Joe Weisenthal
<p>Outside of our Startup 2009 conference, <a href="http://www.thedeal.com/">The Deal's Mary Kathleen Flynn</a> asked Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis his opinion on the New York startup scene and who he's impressed with (he likes Tumblr, for one).</p>
<p>One guy he's <em>not</em> impressed with: Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, who gave up on Wikia search after a year. "That's not being an entrepreneur, that's being a poser."</p>
<p>Of course, the new reinvention of Mahalo is basically <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mahalo-2-is-wikipedia-for-profits-2009-6">Wikipedia for profit</a>.&nbsp; So Jimmy is apparently also an inspiration!</p>
<p><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="330" src="http://blip.tv/play/AYGG91CFxlU" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jason-calacanis-jimmy-wales-is-a-poser-2009-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p>